On 2/23/2014 4:57 PM, LizR wrote:
But it raises the question, given complete amnesia and then growing up with
different experiences and memories in what sense could you be the same
person. I
John Clark and Bruno's back and forth, the one thing they always agree on
is that as
soon as the M-man and the W-man open the transporter doors and see
different scenes
they are different people.
Yes, it does of course raise this problem, and I agree with you that this seems to
stretch the definition of similarity to meaninglessness. For this to mean anything, one
really requires some way for one stream of consciousness to segue into another, so that
although the amnesia becomes complete eventually, there is a transition between the two.
Or perhaps each stream of consciousness cycles back and forth between some tabula rasa
state (assuming any of this has any validity at all, of course). Of course (as per the
transporter) we also find ourselves in the position of Heraclitus' man entering the
river, of a person being in constant flux in any case. This is a result of the idea of
the brain being at some level a digital computer (and probably of it being an analogue
one too...).
For my analysis I'll invoke my favorite intuition pump, the AI Mars Rover. As the Rover
explores the terrain and learns things to enhance its probability of mission success it
fills its memory with things like "don't try to cross those white patches" and "look for
another rock that looks like a donut". Now we can see what degrees of amnesia would
mean. If just the learned stuff were erased, as they would be blank on a second Rover,
then the Rover would be "the same" in terms of what it tried to do and how it tried to do
it, but it would be different in that it would develop different memories and learn new
tricks. You might say it had "the same personality" as the other AI Rover.
But then consider a more extreme case: Back a JPL they have a spare Rover that's identical
to those sent to Mars. But after the mission is over they move the cpu and memory with
the same general AI into an AI deep submersible where they are connected to different
sensors and controllers. Then I'd say it had a different consciousness, based on my theory
that consciousness depends on how one perceives and acts on the environment.
Brent
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